Archival fonds

Archival Fonds No. 031

Katyn1940-1999

Biography / History: Twenty kilometers from Smolensk on the Dniepr, Katyn was the scene of a series of executions by the NKVD of 4,400 Polish officers who were brought from the Kozielsk prisoner of war camp in April and May 1940, executed and buried in a forest. When the graves were discovered by the Germans in 1943, the Soviets blamed the massacre on the Germans, and broke relations with the Polish Government in Exile when it appealed to the International Red Cross to investigate. In April 1990, the Soviet Government accepted the responsibility for the mass murders in Katyn, Kharkov and Tver. The materials were deposited by Jozef Lipski, Col. Maria Trojanowska, Polish Red Cross in Lublin, and Prof. Janusz Zawodny.

Abstract: postal cards from families seeking their missing relatives; lists of those murdered in Katyn; copies of British and Soviet documents on Katyn; declarations, reports, commentaries and publications on the Katyn murders; as well as photographs, maps and clippings.